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Clinical Aspects of the Pharmacology and Biochemistry of Drugs for the Treatment of Motor Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease

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NeuroPsychopharmacotherapy
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Abstract

Management of Parkinson’s disease is complex and involves several pharmacologic principles. It is essential to understand the peculiarities of each pharmacologic compound in terms of pharmacology and biochemistry. This is the precondition to perform a personalized therapy of Parkinson’s disease. Efficacy and safety of drugs is different in each patient. A treatment regimen needs to be adapted to the individual needs of each patient. This is essential to obtain maximum clinical benefit without exposing the patient to unacceptable risks. Combination regimes of multiple pharmacologic agents are common and potentially useful. Cautious, slow titration is essential to limit potential interactions and onset of adverse events. Symptoms often respond to monotherapy or to simple combinations of dopamine-substituting drugs in early stages of the disease. In more advanced stages, drugs are combined more and more on an individual basis. This chapter reviews essential modes of action of drugs such as anticholinergics, glutamate antagonists, levodopa and its complimenting approaches, monoamine oxidase inhibitors.

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Müller, T. (2020). Clinical Aspects of the Pharmacology and Biochemistry of Drugs for the Treatment of Motor Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. In: Riederer, P., Laux, G., Mulsant, B., Le, W., Nagatsu, T. (eds) NeuroPsychopharmacotherapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56015-1_215-1

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